Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution

by Susan Stryker

New Yorker Robin Morgan played an important role in launching WITCH (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell) in 1968, a loose network of socialist-feminist collectives, and her views would have a powerful influence on early white radical feminist views of transgender issues. Many lesbians associated with gay liberation began meeting in feminist consciousness-raising groups. One of these groups, the Radicalesbians, which included Rita Mae Brown, Karla Jay, and others, played a pivotal part in the political development of lesbian feminism through its influential pamphlet, “The Woman-Identified Woman.” At the Second Congress to Unite Women, held in New York in 1970, the Radicalesbians and their paradigm-shifting pamphlet burst onto the scene in response to recent pejorative comments by Betty Friedan about the “lavender menace”—the question of lesbian participation in feminist politics. Friedan opposed associating lesbian concerns with feminism because she feared that society’s homophobia would limit feminism’s appeal and hamper its progress. The Radicalesbians staged what has come to be known as the “Lavender Zap” when, just as the conference was about to begin, they cut power to the microphones, killed the lights, and stormed the stage. When the lights came back up and the microphones came back on a few moments later, Radicalesbians members wearing Lavender Menace T-shirts had commandeered the attention of all present. They passed out copies of “The Woman-Ident...